Ken Writes About Stuff Subscription

Each month in Ken Writes About Stuff, Kenneth Hite turns his considerable writing talents and encyclopedic knowledge of game design, history, the occult and all things Mythos to bear on new topic. From hideous creatures to GUMSHOE innovations, from Moon Dust Men to martial arts, Ken illuminates the dark corners of the genre with 4000-word mini-supplements.

You can pick and choose individual articles at $2.95. A subscription costs $24.95 and, as well as giving you a generous 30% discount on the individual article price, we offer an exclusive extra all subscribers at the end of each year..

The subscription runs from April to March, and any when you order, you’ll get all the issues of the current KWAS to date. The latest edition will be added to your order receipt page when it is released, so all you need to do is click on the link in your order email. (If you can’t find your receipt email, you can get another one sent to you by entering your email address here).

“I consider this series a wake-up call to the lacklustre, to remind them tales of the Mythos, using whatever system, should instil uneasiness, upset and fear. Grasp the potential of the unearthly and inhuman, and make sure next time the investigator’s meet a Shoggoth they have have a truly memorable encounter.”

Installments KWAS 2

KWAS 2 is out now, and existing subscribers should have received a voucher to be able to renew at a discount. Please contact us if you haven’t received this!

April 2015: BONUS ISSUE – Foul Congeries 2 once more opens the books on Lovecraftian monsters that have never taken stat-block form before in any game, including the Bat-Thing, the Black-Winged Ones, and Medusa!

Mar 2015: Tomb-Hounds of Egypt. “God! … If only I had not read so much Egyptology before coming to this land which is the fountain of all darkness and terror!” All you need to know to forge a Pulp archaeology campaign set in 1930s Egypt – for Trail of Cthulhu or just GUMSHOE Bullwhips & Baboon-Mummies!

Feb 2015: GUMSHOE Zoom: Goëtia. Bifrons. Glasya-Labolas. Marchosias. Names to conjure with – literally! This GUMSHOE Zoom takes you inside the pentacle and introduces you to the hierarchy of Hell. Historical European demon-summoning magic just got easier and more realistic. Um … yay?

Jan 2015: Hideous Creatures: Rat-Things. “Witnesses said it had long hair and the shape of a rat, but that its sharp-toothed, bearded face was evilly human while its paws were like tiny human hands.” Witch become rat, or thing become hyper-physicist? Familiar-ize yourself with Lovecraft’s creepiest creation.

Dec 2014: Vendetta Run. You’ve done worse things, but you’ve never done anything as dangerous as angering the Earps. Because now they’re coming to kill you. And they can’t be killed. Not permanent, anyhow. A survival-horror frame for Fear Itself set in the worst and weirdest West.

Nov 2014: Hideous Creatures: Byakhee. “Apart from the curiously repellent feeling of human flesh under my hands, and furred wings, I was not able to ascertain what these creatures were like.” Servants of Hastur or misperceived shantaks? Astral psychopomps or sidereal scavengers? Climb aboard the byakhee and find out!

October 2014: The School of Night. “Black is the badge of Hell; the hue of dungeons and the School of Night.” Queen Elizabeth’s realm lies vulnerable, not just to the Spanish or the plague, but to occult forces perhaps more dangerous than either. You study those forces at the risk of torture — at the risk of your soul — but you must hold them at bay or see England destroyed. This GUMSHOE campaign frame sets the PCs on the stage with John Dee, Christopher Marlowe, and Sir Walter Raleigh … and perhaps with traitors in their ranks.

September 2014: Hideous Creatures: Lloigor. “You make the usual mistake — of thinking of them as being like ourselves. They weren’t.” God or monster? Species or phenomenon? Dragon or disc — or discontinuity? Invisible, invulnerable, inexplicable — the vile vortices of the lloigor encompass all and care for nought.

August 2014: Xeno-Archaeology! “No other ancient city on Mars had been laid out in that manner; and the strange, many-terraced buttresses of the thick walls, like the stairways of forgotten Anakim, were peculiar to the prehistoric race that had built Yoh-Vombis.” From the Face on Mars to Precursor artifacts orbiting dead quasars, the mysteries of space aren’t all astrophysical. For some answers, you have to dig. Ruins — of cities, starships, and planets — hold danger and horror, riches and knowledge. What a lost species or a cunning GM can build, bold exo-archaeologists and their players can uncover.

July 2014: Hideous Creatures: Serpent Folk. “The features mingled and merged in a seemingly impossible manner. Then, like a fading mask of fog, the face suddenly vanished and in its stead gaped and leered a monstrous serpent’s head!” They built Valusia before the dinosaurs, and lurk behind half mankind’s darkest cults. Are they extra-dimensional, extra-terrestrial, or just extra venomous? You won’t fool the Children of Yig, in any skin they wear.

June 2014: GUMSHOE Zoom: Voodoo 2: The Invisibles. The Invisibles, more than spirits and a little less than gods, can fit inside stones, trees, and their servitors’ heads — but not into just one issue of KWAS! Whether you call them Loa or Orisha, these mighty beings demand your attention and your sacrifice, but give you hidden knowledge and awaken your interior fires. This second issue of our two-issue Voodoo series gives you plenty of Invisibles to summon, battle, invoke, and ally with whether you’re hunting Dagon in Haiti or rogue programs on your starship.

May 2014: GUMSHOE Zoom: Voodoo 1: Magic. The first of a new series of GUMSHOE Zooms looking at historical magic traditions — and giving you the tools and rules to evoke these puissant powers in your own game! This first issue in a two-issue series examines sympathetic magic and zombies, and Zooms in on the Afro-Caribbean magical-religious complex encompassing Vodoun, Candomble, Santeria, Obeah, and Palo Mayombe. The loa ride in May!

April 2014: Hideous Creatures: Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath. “Worlds of sardonic actuality impinging on vortices of febrile dream – Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Goat with a Thousand Young!” Are they nameless horrors or numbered servitors, Druidic nightmares or ab-natural abominations? Where do they grow, and on what loathsome food do they thrive? Follow them to Hell and Hydra, or to Mormo and Monsanto.

would love to see some real world locations having their mythos / mystery potential explored and exploded. As a born and bred Londoner, I love the take on London in Bookhounds… I’ve always wanted to set something on the Scilly Isles since I visited for work and found the place facinating, but Stonehenge also spring to mind, as do Whitby and Chernobyl; though I’m sure Ken could conjure many gems of his own…

[…] Ken Writes About Stuff – subscribe now to 12 issues of Ken Hite-ly goodness. Topics have been given in advance! Talking at Yourself by Robin D. Laws, useful advice on how to manage conversations with multiple NPCs. The Call of Chicago: Expediting, Ordering, Inquiring – a sneak peak at the upcoming Mythos Expeditions by Kenneth Hite How to play GUMSHOE – Kevin Kulp explains General Abilities and Investigative Abilities for new players […]

In addition to locations, how about some historical eras? I understand Ken started writing some Elizabethan stuff some time ago (GURPS Gloriana and This Sceptr’d Isle), mentioned on the Lovecraftian Obsession podcast a few years back. I’d love to see some of the work he poured into that in either a KWAS or a future full-sized expansion.

p.s. Full size Elizabethan period supplement for both NBA and Trail of Cthulhu please. I would happily pay silly money for this book written by Mr Hite.